Farm Field And Garden

As between the two usual methods of preserving hay and grain from damage, after these have been harvested and properly cured, storing in the shelter of a good barn will result in the least loss. It is, bowever, often necessary to stack a portion of one or both of these crops from the want of sufficient barn space. In such cases it is highly important that the stack be properly constructed. The agricultural editor of the New York World has the follovring to say on the subject: The safety of the grain or hay to be stacked depends largely on the expertness of the man who builds the stack. Any farm hand can pitch hay or sheaves of grain from a wagon, but unless the stacker is a man of some experience in the business and with a good eye for proportions and outlines the stack is quite certain to be faulty in shape, and probably so lopsided that one-half of it will offer but little resistance to rain. While the shape of a stack is very important, the manner of laying on the hay or sheaves while building it is equally so. In all cases the center of the stack should be kept the highest, so that the incline of the sheaves or f orkf uls of hay as they are laid on shall be outward. Again, hay should not be trampee! down on the stack in wads and rolls, but should fall flat from the fork so as to make as compact and water resisting a body as possible. When a stack has been properly topped off and presents no rough or jagged outlines from top to bottom, it affords quite a safe method for protecting either hay or grain that cannot be cared for in a barn. Clover is more liable to damage and harder to be protected from wet in stacks than are the finer stemmed hay grasses, and where there is only room for one variety of hay in the barn it is best to put the clover into the mow.